Our last day, alas...

I write to you on our last night in Paris. I can tell that Adam and I are so fulfilled by this trip in many ways, but I can also tell we are pretty fatigued. We ended our fabulous honeymoon with the meal of all meals. After watching chef Anthony Bourdain's premier episode of "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel, entitled "Why the French Don't Suck", we were inspired to go to Chez Robert et Louise for dinner. What an experience!! Totally accessible, old-school French cuisine in a character-filled dining room.

Anthony Bourdain's episode made our mouths water, with clips of Cote de Boeuf being cooked to perfection in their open, wood-burning fire pits, along with garlic and parsley sauteed potatoes, and a salad. That is exactly what we had. After watching the video again tonight after dinner, we realize that we sat at the exact same table as Anthony did!! How neat! We started off our palates with succulent escargot and a couple of chilled Heinekens. Heaven. Adam had no idea how to actually eat the snails, but our friendly table mate, and I say table mate because we were literally sharing a table with another party, showed us how.

And then our beef came. What a vision. Flame-crisped outer edges, and medium-rare, melt-in-your-mouth center. Sprinkled with some fleur de sel (rock salt), and freshly ground pepper - beyond heaven. I haven't even gotten to the potatoes, which we had to order second helpings of. The best potatoes to date, smothered in garlic, parsley, and sateed in duck fat. I hummed and hawed a little about ordering a second helping, but ultimately, there was no doubt. It was out first real meal of the day, and our last night in Paris. The lovely, friendly waitress suggested a smooth red wine to accompany our meal - a 2005 Pecharmant, L'Ancienne Cure - one of our best wine-drinking experiences on this trip. Time for some more pictures!

We ended off with a classic French dessert, creme brulee, and two espressos.

What and atmosphere. You can get a sense of it in the next pic, as well as seeing our chef working hard, and facing us at the right moment, in the background:

If you would like to see the video that inspired tonight's meal, check out the short clip below (from about the 1:30 minute mark until 5:10).

We are now relaxing and digesting in our apartment. What a lovely place this has been to stay. Our day earlier today was mostly spent on cleaning our apartment and packing up. Our landlord came by before dinner to make a last overview of the place and to make sure everything was in tact and in order. He came by with a box of caramels in tow, after presenting us with a bottle of champagne on our first day! What generosity. It's the little touches that make you feel at home when you are so far away.

We figured that we would not have visited this area that our apartment is located had we not been staying here. There is no real major tourist attraction here, in the 5th Arrondissement, or the Latin Quarter. It gave us a place to experience how the locals live, and also allowed us to enjoy an area full of life, and not flocked with tourists!

We plan to post one or two more postings to wrap up our trip. Time permitting, we'll post one before we head to the airport tomorrow and one final one when we land in Chicago, the details of which we haven't quite settled on yet. Thanks again to everyone who's read and commented/emailed. You've helped make this trip a fantastic one.